Boris Johnson will be “getting away with it” unless the Sue Gray report is published in full, Ian Blackford has said.
The SNP Westminster leader said parliament must use its full powers to make sure the report is made public following reports a pared-back version of the investigation is set to be delivered to Downing Street.
He expressed frustration that the insistence of the Met Police that details of partygate events they are investigating must be struck from the report could not stand.
Blackford said: “In that situation Boris Johnson, on the face of it, is getting away with it one more time as he has done on many occasions.”
He added: “In the end this is a report that Boris Johnson has promised to parliament, so parliament can use his powers and compel the government to release any information that it wants.
“There is no reason why it should be held up. So let’s see what we can do under parliamentary procedures to make sure that we can get this.”
Opposition parties led by Labour are considering using the Commons device of a “humble address” to force a vote in the Commons to get the report published in full if the government chooses not to do so.
A “humble address” is effectively a message to the Queen demanding the publication of papers.
Labour’s Lisa Nandy MP has called on the Prime Minister to “come clean” over claims of lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street.
The Shadow Levelling Up Secretary told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show: “The reason that we’ve got to have the Sue Gray report is because the Prime Minister won’t come clean on what has been going on in Downing Street and his involvement in it.”
“We could sort all of this out without him having to hide behind a civil servant or the Met Police, he could just come clean, but since he won’t come clean we believe that the most important thing is to get that report out in full.
Tory Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it was the government’s “intention to publish the full report”.
She admitted that the Met Police investigation into the Downing Street parties running alongside the Sue Gray inquiry had created “a bit of a mess” but in a sign that the delays caused had worked to Johnson’s advantage she dismissed talk of a leadership contest.
Asked if she was tempted to take over from the Prime Minister, she replied: “There is no contest”.
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